Modern society requires the availability of communication systems through which to communicate data. Data is communicated pursuant to effectuation of many varied types of communication services.
A communication system is formed of, at a minimum, a sending station and a receiving station interconnected by way of a communication channel. Data is originated, at one of the communication stations, forming a sending station. The sending station sends the data upon the communication channel to a second communication station, forming a receiving station. The receiving station detects the data communicated thereto upon the communication channel and operates to recover the informational content thereof.
Many different types of communication systems have been developed and deployed by which to provide for the effectuation of many different types of communication services. With continued advancements in communication technologies, improvements to communication systems are provided, and new types of communication systems are developed and deployed. For instance, advancements in communication technologies have permitted the introduction of new types of radio communication systems and, also, improvements to the capabilities and performance of existing radio communication systems.
In a radio communication system, communication stations are not connected by way of a wireline connection upon which a communication channel is defined. Rather, a communication channel is defined upon a radio air interface extending between the communication stations. Because the need for use of a wireline connection between the communication stations is obviated, radio communication systems provide various advantages over their wireline counterparts. For example, the initial installation and deployment costs associated with a radio communication system are generally less than, sometimes substantially so, than the costs required initially to install and deploy a corresponding wireline communication system. Additionally, and significantly, a radio communication system is amenable for implementation as a mobile communication system. In a mobile communication system, one, or more, of the communication stations operable therein are mobile, thereby providing communication mobility.
A cellular communication system is a type of radio communication system. The network infrastructures of various types of cellular communication systems have been deployed throughout significant portions of the populated areas of the world. Usage levels of cellular communication systems are increasing, and the types of communication services available for effectuation therethrough correspondingly are increasing.
Analog communication techniques are utilized in first-installed cellular communication systems. Such communication systems provide for circuit switched connections. And, circuit switched voice communications as well as low bandwidth data communication services are provided in these cellular communication systems.
Advancements in communication technologies, as noted above, have permitted the development, installation, and deployment of successive generations of cellular communication systems. The successor generation systems, successors to the initially deployed cellular communication systems, generally utilized digital communication techniques and provide for packet switched communications. Packet switched connections in which packet formatted data is communicated efficiently utilizes communication capacity of the communication system. Multiple increases in the communication capacity of a communication system utilizing packet switched communication techniques, relative to communication systems that utilize analog communication techniques are sometimes possible. An operating specification defining the operational parameters and requirements of a universal mobile telephone service/general packet radio service (UMTS/GPRS) communication system is undergoing standardization procedures. The communication system defined therein is an exemplary successor generation cellular communication system that provides for packet switched communications.
Other radio communication systems provide for the effectuation of communication services that are analogous to communication services provided by cellular communication systems. WLANs (Wireless Local Area Networks) also provide for the communication of data with mobile stations by way of radio communication channels. WLANs, also analogous to their wired counterparts LANs (Local Area Networks), provide for data communication services over, typically, relatively small areas, such as throughout a building location or area. WLANs, generally, permit the effectuation of high data rate communication services, sometimes at costs that are substantially lower than the corresponding costs to communicate the corresponding data in a public access, cellular communication system.
Some WLANs are implemented to be operable in compliance with the operating specifications and protocols set forth in an IEEE 802.11, or variant, operating specification. Existing operating standards provide for high bandwidth communication services, e.g., between 11 and 54 Mbps within relatively small coverage areas, such as sixty square meters. Existing WLANs, including those operable pursuant to the IEEE 802.11 operating specification, generally lack an adequate paging mechanism by which to page a mobile station of initiation of a communication session. Existing paging mechanisms are lacking as location tracking of mobile stations operable in such WLANs is not provided. While proposals have been set forth by which to provide layer-3 logical layer paging protocols, e.g., at the IP (Internet Protocol) for IPv4 and Ipv6 protocols, such proposals do not set forth efficient paging procedures. Such proposals provide for layer-3 logical paging services on top of session continuity or merely paging services. The existing proposals do not provide layer-2 logical layer paging, e.g, at the link layer.
Link layer support is needed to locate or track a mobile station and to wake up a dormant mobile station. Paging at the layer-3 logical layer fails to provide an adequate mechanism by which to wake up a dormant mobile station or a mechanism by which to page a mobile station at a layer-2 logical layer.
An improved paging mechanism that overcomes the inadequacies of the existing paging mechanisms is therefore needed.
It is light of this background information related to the paging of a mobile station in a WLAN, or other radio communication system, that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.